How are you transporting yourself this summer to your parents’ place? Or to your holiday-destination? Probably by plane right? And you can carry a lot with you on a trip, but there is always luggage which you want to keep with you in the cabin – your hand luggage. Now, the question always rises for me: ‘What do I take in my hand luggage?’ Even if it is a trip for only 2 hours or so, I am still wondering. Your suitcase can be disappeared after you land, because of a mistake of the airport and you don’t want to be without any stuff for two weeks! Discussed the problem, thought about it and here is the list.

14 things you need to take with you as your hand luggage

1. Chewing gum. Popping ears? Some chewing gum might help. Chew on it and the trip will be more pleasant.
2. Pen and paper. Just in case you have an idea, or you need to write something down. I always carry a pen on my keychain and made my own notebook of tape (more on that later).
3. Something to read. They will play movies during the trip, but something to read is always nice. When you are waiting for the gate to open, or waiting until the plane is going to start, have something to read on you!
4. An extra pair of clothes. Now, this is something I didn’t do. Until a friend of mine got the problem I described above. His luggage was lost and he didn’t had any clothes for 3-4 days. Pretty bad!
5. Your passport. Obvious.
6. Condoms. Obvious?
7. A camera. Whether it is a Flip or just a simple camera, it is always nice to shoot some pictures along the way!
8. Jacket/Vest. When you are in the air the temperature on the outside of the plane can be low as -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit). Ok, it isn’t that cold in the cabin, but you will feel a drop of temperature and it is nice to bring something which can warm you up!
9. Chargers. Even if your phone is fully charged, if your suitcase is lost, you will also lose your chargers. That is why you should bring it with you in the cabin!
10. Ear plugs. When you are sitting right next to a motor, you won’t get into sleep without the plugs. Trust me.
11. Ear plugs for music! You can buy them on board, but it is cheaper to bring your own, right?
12. For the girls. Bring your little mirror with you, maybe a little make-up. Because you always want to look good!
13. Toiletries. It is a nice feeling to brush your teeth on a long trip, or to spray some deodorant underneath your armpits. Just a fresh feeling!
14. Sunglasses. To make the pictures I told you about at point 7 a little bit more awesome.

That is what you need to bring to be ultimate prepared! Any subject I forgot? Share them in the comments, your fellow readers will love you for it!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

The end is near, my fellow students! At least of this academic year. Finals are right in front of us which makes it almost time to close up a little bit, to end the academic year.

Ending the academic year.
What is next? What do you need to do before you go back to your parents’ place?

• Clean up! Everything around you is probably a mess. You need to clean up, clean your room, but also clean your head. Empty it, write down. Furthermore, leftover to-do lists. Do you need to pay some bills? Do you still need to return a book to the library? Meet with a couple of friends before you leave? Gather all your to-do’s and write them down on a big ‘Before I leave To-Do list’. In that way, you will have a view on what you need to do before you take the plane back home!
• Go back to your parents. You will live with your parents for a couple of months again. How is that going to be? On one side, they will take care of you. This means good food and clean clothes again! But on the other side, they will keep an eye on you and you will notice. You can’t just stay away from home, you need to inform your parents. Make sure you get in the state of mind again, or you will definitly clash with your makers!
• Set a goal for the summer. I will explain this one later this week. But for now. Make sure you do something with the big amount of free time you are going to get. Spending 3 weeks on a couch isn’t very nice, not for yourself, not for others. Enjoy your free time, but make it count also!

With this post, I would also like to anounce that I am going to have a new schedule for the summer. Instead of 3 posts, Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will post twice a week. Probably on Tuesday and Thursday. Just because there isn’t much to write about in the summer on a college blog! After the summer I will take back my normal schedule of 3 posts a week!

Happy summer everybody.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

Having a hard time keeping up with what the prof is saying in a lecture? And after reading about the awesome Cornell Notes you probably want to write everything down. But you cannot keep up, so you cannot write anything down and you cannot learn anything from that lecture! Stress stress stress.

There must be a way right? To keep writing everything down the prof is saying and to pay attention. And lucky you, there is. All it takes is a little (really a little) creativity and 3 minutes after the lecture.

How to keep up with your notes in a lecture
When you are sitting at a lecture, writing down the material your teacher is covering, find little abbreviations (shortcuts, however you wanna call it) to write down. For instance, if the teacher is talking about cardiac heart failure, you probably don’t want to write down that word all the time, so you write CHF instead of the long word Cardiac Heart Failure.

Isn’t this obvious? Yes it is. But nobody is using it in a smart way. When you are jotting down notes, make sure you abbreviate a lot. Have a lot of abbreviations for words, so you can write faster and pay more attention. But! Make sure what these abbreviations mean. You can write down the word you are going to write down a lot one time completely and write the abbreviation after it (e.g. Cardiac heart failure (CHF)). This can be done in class, so you don’t need the extra 3 minutes after class. But you can also revise your notes (as you are already doing probably because of your Cornell Note Taking) and write down the abbreviations at the top of your paper. You will have a short, cool list on top of your notes with a couple of abbreviations. Awesomeeee!

Quick tip for the people who take notes with their laptop
When you have your laptop to take notes on, install WordPilot (TextExpander for Mac) and fill in a couple of words ahead. What this little application does is making you able to write only the abbreviation, but the full word will appear in your word document. This is how I answer my email 5 times faster. Instead of writing ‘Kind regards, Stefan Knapen, http://StudySuccessful.com, http://StefanKnapen.com, http://twitter.com/StefanSSF’ I just write down ‘kr’ and it will expand that abbreviation to the whole sentence.

Put words in ahead of a lecture. If it is about microfinance, fill in words like ‘mf = microfinance’, ‘pfia = poor farmers in Africa’. You are creative enough to find you own abbreviations!

Good luck, have fun, write faster.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

This guest post is contributed by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email: alvina.lopez@gmail.com

Okay, no one wants to be in this position—you were given an assignment or research paper weeks, maybe even months ago and you decided since the deadline was so far out off into the horizon, it could wait. Before you know it, it’s midnight, you’ve got maybe 18 hours till deadline, and you haven’t even started. In a perfect world, this scenario would never even occur. But when I was in college, it happened all the time. I think I’d experienced maybe 30 or more excruciating all-nighters over a three and a half year period. The first was the toughest, and after a few more, it wasn’t all that soul-draining as it used to be. But don’t get me wrong, every sleep-deprived night still sucked in a very big way. In the end, however, I made it out alive, and with good grades on top of that.

So if you do end up saving something for the very last night, which will happen inevitably, here’s how I managed and how you can manage, too.

• Stock up on caffeine products. This may seem fairly obvious, but your body simply is not used to missing out on sleep and actively working on a task simultaneously. Pick your poison, as the saying goes. Whether its coffee, energy drinks, or even tea, make sure you approach the wee hours of the night prepared. But be forewarned: don’t ingest these products too quickly, simply because an unintended side-effect is the caffeine crash. You’ll get a rush of energy that may impair your ability to focus anyway, and then you’ll feel incredibly sleepy. I’d usually start with one cup of coffee per hour, and then transition to green tea later in the morning.
• Take breaks. You can’t feasibly stay up all night without taking a few breaks. Since I used to smoke (I’m not advocating smoking by the way; it’s a terribly self-destructive habit and you should quit as soon as possible if you do) I’d set goals for myself, like write a page, take a smoke break. You can take other kinds of breaks too, like ten or fifteen minutes of Internet surfing for every hour of solid work you accomplish.
• Try to take an interest in what you’re doing. When approaching an all-nighter successfully, it’s all about attitude. The worst, slowest, most painful all-nighters I ever experienced were those in which I had already made up my mind that my paper or project was boring and pointless. Don’t do that, whatever you do. If you have the choice of picking topics for your assignment, make sure you choose something you feel will sustain your interest for an entire night. If you can’t pick the general topic, then when doing your research, make sure that you find sources that approach a boring topic from an interesting perspective. Trust me—your level of interest makes a HUGE difference.
• A friend who’s in a similar situation can sometimes help. If you’ve got a buddy to join you when things get tough, then all the better. You can motivate each other.

These are basically the only four things I did to help me make it through the night. As heart wrenching as it is to sacrifice a night of much-needed sleep, it isn’t impossible, and it will build your strength, your intellectual stamina, and even your character. Good luck!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

As you already know, I love Friends and How I Met Your Mother. I also explained why you should watch shows to learn another language, and that is what I do. I don’t use any subtitles and my vocabular expanded a lot since I’ve watched all Friends seasons twice. Awesome. And all of this I do online, or I will make sure I have the show on my laptop, so I don’t have to watch it on the television (read the post with 6 reasons to throw your tv out?).

Anyway, here are 6 great shows to watch!

• Friends. Obvious, I love this show! Watched all seasons twice and seen a lot of the episodes multiple times. Doesn’t matter, it keeps being fun! Why for college students? Cause it is really easy to digest, but a lot of fun. Besides that, it contains a lot of problems we are going to face later in life. Did I mention we can learn a lot from Joey Tribbiani?
• How I Met Your Mother. Awe-some. This show doesn’t need any explanation, it is just wonderful. Have a laugh at Barney, learn about relationships from Marshall and Lily and learn about never-giving-up from Ted Mosby! And we can also learn a little from the awesome Barney Stinson!
• The Big Bang Theory. Interesting show for college students? Definitly. Not only a lot of amusement, but also just a little to learn. These guys use fancy words all the time and explain interesting theories. A lot to learn and a lot to laugh about!
• Diggnation. Diggnation covers the hottest stories on the social site digg.com. This show is only on the internet and it is great because Alex and Kevin talk about the latest developments in the world of gadgets and internet. Interesting show, interesting people and interesting stories.
• Mad Men. A show about the advertising business in the early ’60′s. For college students? Definitly. It learns us about marketing (which is always interesting) and about the etiquette from the early days. Manliness, not-so-much-manliness and a lot of interesting thoughts.
• HackCollege. Kelly and Chris don’t post that many shows anymore, but when they do, make sure to check it out, always fun!

Which show did I forgot? Which show do you love the most! Please share it in the comments!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

I’m no longer a student, but I’ve been one for a little more than two decades. With two graduate programs under my belt, I’ve been through the grind of studying and exams more times than I care to remember. And in all these years, I’ve learned that there’s more to cramming for exams than meets the eye. For example, I’m one of the large number of people who never remember something if they learn it just once. Rather, they need to do a few more revisions before the subject registers enough in the brain to recall during exams. But besides this obvious method, there are other tricks to remembering what you study:

• Combine your efforts: There are some subjects that are better remembered when you combine your efforts with friends who have taken the same course. When you discuss your answers and engage in debates as to how you reached them and why you need to answer certain questions in certain ways, you tend to remember the subject more clearly and comprehensively. It’s also a fun way to study as opposed to cramming on your own.
• Teach your friends: I’ve found that if I teach someone something, I never forget it. That’s because I need to understand the subject or topic completely before I’m able to explain it clearly to someone else. Also, the act of getting them to learn the subject embeds it more deeply in your memory. So even if it’s years later, you find that you recall the topic with relative ease because you’ve been a teacher for a while.
• Start early: The best way to study for exams (and the least followed option as far as I know) is to start early – when you learn a little every day, it’s easy to put together the bits and pieces at the end and make them a coherent whole. Also, when you avoid leaving the studying to the last minute, you prevent the stress, tension and ill-health associated with cramming and staying up late.
• Take the practical route: When you do something practically, it’s easier to remember the theory. This holds good for scientific principles, mathematics and other subjects where you can practice what you learn. It’s like cooking – when you make a recipe often enough, it’s easy to remember it without having to refer to the cookbook every time.
• Write it down: And finally, one of the most effective ways to remember what you’ve learned is to jot down notes as you study. When you write down stuff like formulae and important points, your brain remembers it twice as well. Also, it’s easier to revise by just going through what you’ve written instead of having to read through your entire set of notes again.

Studying and learning is a personal aspect, one that is different for different people; so try out what works best for you before you adopt it on a regular basis.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

Since the start of StudySuccessful.com, you have the ability to ask questions in the comments. But the questions I get are mostly questions about the topic I just wrote. Another option is writing an email, or contacting me on Twitter. This can become too personal maybe. These reasons are probably why I don’t get a lot of questions. And these reasons are probably why Chris and Kelly from HackCollege started DiscussCampus.

DiscussCampus is a site where you can post your college related questions. Anything. From coming out in your social circle to how you use Evernote for note-taking. You can give questions and answers +1′s if you like them, so they will rank higher on the ‘questions page’.

With answering questions, you can get points if people like your answer. This is the same with asking questions. You can also earn badges for certain acts (like having the first answer, a questions with 1k views etc).

I really like this service, basicly because I can answer people their questions over there. One of the reasons I started this blog is to help other people succeeding in their mission to survive college life and eventually becoming successful in college life. Having this mission, DiscussCampus is a great tool for me.

The other thing is that I can find topics over there to write about here. DiscussCampus makes a great resource.

So, head over to DiscussCampus, ask a couple of questions, answer a couple of them. When you reach 1000 reputation points, you will get a cool laptop cover, so start participating.

I don’t get paid in any form for this review, I am just honestly excited about this service!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

It’s friday! So time for a couple of quick links. You have probably a couple of college sites in your Google Reader already (if you haven’t check my post on 5 great college blogs), but have you seen these college blogs before? Relatively new, but making their way to the top soon. Click them, check them, subscribe to them.

• Collegethrive. Tips, advice and resources! Ran by Dan Northern, who had a guest post over here not that long ago!
• CampusByte. Study skills & New technology. Ran by Jay Willingham.
• Pre-med Hell. Rants of Neurotic Pre-Meds. A college blog devoted to pre-meds, pretty awesome!
• Discusscampus. College questions and answers. Not that much of a blog, but a site where you can ask questions and answer questions from others.

Heard about them before or a blog you miss over here? Share it in the comments!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

This is a guest post by Niels Gouman Niels is a professional lifehacker from the Netherlands. Want to know more about Niels? Check out his website: NielsGouman.nl, or follow @NielsGouman on Twitter. Do you want to do a guest post? Visit the contact page!

In this post I’d like to explain to you why you should use mindmapping. Back in the day when I was going to school mindmapping seriously saved my ass, well at least it did at the times I actually studied. I didn’t study much at school, and I quit my last school after about 2 months. School just isn’t my thing, I disagree with too many things. But tricks like these did help me to get proper grades whilst studying as little as possible.

What is a MindMap?

From my experience I’ve noticed that reading lines, paragraphs, books, and repeating that over and over until you remember it, just isn’t working. This way of studying takes up one hell of alot of time, whilst not giving much result. Apparently this is because your brain just doens’t work that way. Your brain likes to make connections.

For example: You’re into this sport (doesn’t really matter which one), and all of the sudden a rule changes. Now, because you know so much of this sport (hey, you’re really into it!) you can very quickly understand this new rule, and apply it properly. Compared to somebody who isn’t into that sport, you will be amazingly much faster to learn.

This also explains why teaching is the best way to learn. Teaching forces you to think diffrent about stuff you already know, enabling your brain to make new connections.

So what is a mindmap? Well simply put a mindmap is a drawing of these connections. Just a quick video to show you how you can use it:

Why would you want that?

Sounds great and all, this mindmapping thing, but why would you want to waste my time making mindmaps while you might as well just study your notes? Fairly simple actually, you can easely earn back the time you’re spending on making a mindmap, by enabling you to study so much faster. After seeing a mindmap (almost) everything is obvious, you see and understand the associations you made and easely remember what the subject was about.

Also, when you’ve made a mindmap, the next time you need a quick refresh on the subject you’ll be done within seconds. No need to read a lot of text, hoping you’ll remember it. Now with mindmaps you instantly see the associations, it will visualise the subject, and your brain will almost instantly remember everything about the subject, since this is what your brain is good at.

How am I going to make one?

So you’re convinced, mindmaps are awesome! Now what? Well you’ve got to go and make a couple of them, but how?

The guy in the video explains it pretty good, make sure you’ve watched it. Do a couple of Google Image searches for mindmaps, so you can see the results. So now you’ve got a pretty good idea how one of those things should end up, but how to make one yourself?

It’s pretty simple actually. To start just write down the subject that you should be studying for, write it in the middle of your page. Once you’ve done that just write down a couple of keywords around it, and draw lines from the subject to the keywords. Next you write down important notes for the keywords, and connect with lines again. This last stap should actually make it pretty clear already, optionally you can make a pretty drawing next to it, to visualise it even more.

Last (optional) step is one of my favorites which almost everybody forgets. Think of as many examples as possible. Don’t connect these with more lines, that would make it messy and destroy the instant understanding. Add a number next to a word and write the example on the back of your paper. This will make you think a bit more about the subject. By writing down examples your brain can make even more connections to remember the subject by. And on the off chance that you forgot and don’t understand your mindmap you can just read the examples to understand what you meant.

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• How To Convert Text To Mind Map (slideshare.net)

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

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This is a guest post by JT Thome from Textbooks.com. Do you want to do a guest post? Visit the contact page!

When I was in college, I was a “cram” all-star: during mid-terms and finals weeks, you’d find me with a cup of coffee permanently attached to my hand for yet another all-nighter, scouring my notes and textbooks. Today, students have a vast universe of tech-driven tools at their disposal to help them study and keep organized which may help to make sleep deprivation a thing of the past!

With everything that’s out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. I’ve compiled what I think are the best offerings available, along with a little wisdom I picked up during my time as a student. Have a great semester!

• Leverage the Web – Join social learning sites such as Course Hero and Koofers to share the knowledge and learn from other students. Also, check out #textbooktuesday, a day for sharing study tips, by following @textbooks on Twitter!
• Study Groups Go Virtual – There’s no doubt that study groups are a great way of sharing information and getting to know new people. Instead of trudging across campus to the assigned meeting spot, try using Google Docs to conduct your study groups online. Multiple users can edit documents in real time, meaning that note sharing is made seamless. Did we mention it’s free? And don’t forget Facebook – it makes it easy to find and friend classmates, expanding your network of study partners and note sharing reach.
• Blackboards go mobile– Many colleges and universities are listed on Blackboard, and more and more professors are using the platform to interact with students inside and outside of the classroom. The site just announced the launch of a Smart Phone app, making those interactions even easier.
• Taking notes – Because many professors don’t allow laptops in the classroom, you’re stuck taking notes by hand – but even that can be done more efficiently. Try the 2/6 method, which refers to the way you divide the space on your notepaper. Make two columns and use the red border line on the left as the marker for the “2” line – where you highlight the most important points, and the rest of the page as the “6” column, where you take your notes. This way you’re organized from the get-go, and when studying for exams you make sure you’re focused on the points your professor stressed the most during lectures.
• Brain Food – Your brain is powered by proper nutrition. Medical researchers agree that omega-3 fatty acids are essential for proper brain function. Cafeteria not serving salmon? Walnuts are one of the best natural sources of omega-3’s, and supplements are widely available and affordable. Easy recipe – drain off those microwave noodles and add some crushed walnuts and red pepper flakes (gourmet!) or mix some chopped walnuts into the peanut bar jar for your “peanut butter fingers special”.
• Have fun – Don’t let yourself get too stressed – take time to have fun, even while studying. “Study breaks” are healthy, keep you focused and help avoid burnout. Whatever your favorite form of dorm fun – even Facebook stalking or sending a “still studying” Tweet – just keep it legal and you can call it part of good study habits.
• Bonus tip – Rent textbooks from BookRenter.com!

Whether you earn your degree via online schools or a campus institution, study these tips!

JT Thome is COO of Textbooks.com, the site that has the cheapest prices on the planet’s biggest selection of hand-inspected used textbooks.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!